Search age:

Search in:

AIS and AOC shake-up Olympics partnership

David Barbeler

The Australian Sports Commission has finally "put its neck on the line" by endorsing the goal of becoming a top five nation at the 2016 Rio Games, says Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) president John Coates.

The two bodies will work closer together to achieve Olympic success, with Australia having finished sixth in the overall medal tally at London 2012 with just seven gold medals and 35 in total.

Many of the nation's top athletes work alongside key Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) personnel for 47 of the 48 months leading up to each Olympics.

The AIS, which is a division of the Commission, then hands the athletes over to the AOC on the eve of the world's largest multi-sports event to prepare them for the biggest moment of their lives.

Advertisement

But things are about to change under "Campaign Rio", announced on Wednesday.

In a partnership so obvious it's surprising it didn't already exist, the AOC has invited key AIS staff to join them during Rio 2016 in a cost-effective bid to bump the nation back up to a top five finish.

The London medal return capped off a downward trend from Sydney 2000, when the nation's athletes hauled in 16 gold to finish in fourth place with a total of 58 medals.

With rival and developing countries increasingly spending more on sport, Coates said it became a no-brainer to embed key AIS staff within the AOC team rather than "keep them outside the tent".

That means AIS director Matt Favier will be deputy chef de mission of the Australian Olympic team, while AIS chief medical officer Dr David Hughes and sports scientist Nick Brown have also been invited onboard - giving athletes and coaches more familiar points of contact.

Coates says the partnership was only made possible once the Australian Sports Commission created their Winning Edge high performance strategy.

"In the past they've sort of sat back there. For some reason they noted our top five (goal), but never endorsed it," he said.

"They just weren't prepared to put their neck on the line as they've done now."

ASC chair John Wylie admitted the partnership was long overdue.

"The AIS has been very successful over a long period of time, and that means, like all organisations, you can tend to repeat the things you've done in the past," he said.

The Australian Paralympic Committee will also work in partnership with the AIS at the 2016 Paralympic Games.